Two Years, Nine Months, and a Day
by Rampage-on-Your-Wings
Summary: Because in the end there was only she and I. Au Carlijah


Summary: Because in the end there was only she and I. AU Carlijah

I remember the night I met her.

I'd only had the barest of ideas on who she was. She was on the list of people Elena had wanted protected, as well as being the object of my brother's affections. We were with Stefan, not speaking nor acknowledging each other, when the youngest Salvatore received the call informing him of my brother's death.

That's when I actually 'saw' her. She'd gasped, and then tears were pouring from her eyes. I had the slightest of inclinations to wipe them from her face but instead she ran off, perhaps looking for someone. She never did say.

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I didn't see her again for a time, but I remember when I did.

I was packing my belongings, not to keen on the idea of staying in the home Niklaus had made for us, nor Mystic Falls for that matter, when I felt a presence at the door. It couldn't have been Rebekah, who had left minutes after exacting her revenge by killing the last Petrova. I looked up only to see Caroline, a suitcase at her side and a backpack on her shoulders. "How may I help you, Miss Forbes," I'd asked. She looked down to her feet before looking back up at me. "I don't know where you're going, but I want to go with you."

I didn't say anything for a while. Her request, or demand rather, was an odd one. Why should she want to go anywhere with me, a man she'd barely met, let alone one who had, at one point, threatened her friends. I asked her as much, and her answer was surprising. She just shrugged her small shoulders, and she said to me, "I have no one else. And it looks like you don't either."

It was true, at the time. My remaining family had scattered, and I had no allies here while er own friends had locked into themselves and her mother had already expressed distrust to vampires. It was only us. My answer came quickly. "Yes."

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I remember the first time I felt fondness for her.

It was three months after we left Mystic Falls. The first month we spent in New York, but the next few we traveled to more exotic locations, such as Australia and Brazil. Everywhere we went, I had a story, a lesson, and she took it all in with wide eyes and an open mind. It was quite refreshing to be with such a girl. She was like a little sponge, absorbing every bit of information I gave to her and I found myself enjoying it. But it was the day she taught me something that I really felt the affection.

We were in my villa in Brazil. "Elijah, for an old guy, you really don't have a lot of friends," she'd said to me, plopping herself down next to me on the couch. I was going over papers dedicated to something that is hardly important now, and didn't feel the need to look up. "I have not the need for friends, only allies little one," I'd told her. She scoffed. "Elijah, even crotchty old Originals like you need friends."  
Perhaps it wasn't the best way to be taught something, but it did.

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I remember the first time she spoke of Niklaus.

It was two months after Brazil, at the time we'd moved on to Rome. She'd become so…sad it seemed upon learning on our destination. I hadn't the slightest idea why, nor did I know how to comfort the young vampire. So I did my best to distract her with the histories and such of the city, and for a time it kept her attention, but she always seemed to be thinking of something else. And one day it made itself known.

We were in my apartment waiting out the rain of the day. She seemed to be gloomy, staring out the window deep in thought. I was reading The Great Gatsby for the nth time, when she decided to speak. "He wanted to take me here," she stated. I looked up from my book. "Oh?" She'd turned to me with a little smile, caught between amused and sad and I'll never understand why. "He was kinda creepy y'know…but it was nice." And then she turned away to look back out the window.

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I remember the first time we kissed, and the first time we touched, because it was also the first time she saw me cry.

After four months we'd gone from Rome to Paris, and then to England to the Manor I'd shared with Niklaus in the days we'd hunted Katerina. The memories in those halls still haunted me, and I realized then how much I missed my younger brother. He'd done such terrible things in his life, but perhaps he wouldn't have gone that way had I only protected him when we were human.

I left her to her explorations and went to the study where we'd fought over that Petrova's escape. Such a horrid fight we'd had. I'd wanted nothing more than to help him, and then I'd wanted him dead. I got my wish, and it hurt. More than anything did it hurt. The pain forced tears from my eyes as I stared around the room.

And then she was there, having been looking for me because how could she possibly explore every inch of that place by her lonesome? But she'd stopped her joking upon seeing my tears. They'd shocked her, but she'd shaken it off and gone up to me, touching my cheek in an effort to comfort me. I'd leaned into her hand, and she'd asked me why, and I told her. I suppose she knew words would not help, for she held me. And when she was letting me go, I couldn't help myself. Here was this beautiful, compassionate creature reaching out to me, how could I hold back? I kissed her, and to my utter astonishment, she'd kissed me back.

There were no words in this moment, only touch, only feeling. I'd ripped her clothes from her body, and she mine, and we were all tangled limbs and sweet release and I swore to a god I did not, and do not believe in because how could this not be the sweetest pain I'd ever felt.

When it was over we lay together on the floor, and I held her close to me, so close that if I could I would have pulled her inside of me and never let her go.

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I remember the exact moment I fell in love with her.

It was so completely obvious. We'd been together two years, nine months, and a day, and how could I have not realized it sooner. Because it was on that day we met, two years, nine months, and a day, that I had met the woman I would fall for, so painfully, so brutally, and so perfectly.

All, because I said yes.


End file.
